Serious strategy games for serious gamers

As everyone knows, PC, by far, provides the greatest strategy game experiences.

Think Europa Universalis. Total War. Hearts of Iron.

So the point of this thread is to discuss everyone's favourite strategy games. Just how hardcore are you as a strategy gamer, and I bet I am worse  

My brother got into Total War somehow. I mean, he was always good at chess, but otherwise never showed any interest in strategy games. His daily conquests have been getting me interested in it, too, but I just don't have much interest in learning the ins and outs of a game that complex anymore. I used to play a lot of 4X games, but now I don't know how I ever had the patience for them...

Haha, my taste in strategy games has changed too. I used to be the kind of guy that loved Civilization, but given half a chance I'd go back to a RTS like Total War in a heart beat. It's the other way around now. I love my Total War games (especially Napoleon), but something grand like Europa Universalis IV is just that much richer as an experience.

The genre has never really come to consoles (Romance of the Three Kingdoms games aside), so I am so glad I have a laptop that can play these games again.